Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development, and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh - Couverture rigide

Dewan, Camelia

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0295749601 ISBN 13 : 9780295749600

Editeur : University of Washington Press, 2022

Synopsis

Winner of the 2025 ACLS Open Access Book Prize in the Environmental Humanities Category, ACLS and Arcadia An unexpected story of climate change initiatives that threaten a complex waterscapePerilously close to sea level and vulnerable to floods, erosion, and cyclones, Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for climate change adaptation. Yet to what extent do adaptation projects address local needs and concerns? Combining environmental history and ethnographic fieldwork with development professionals, rural farmers, and landless women, Misreading the Bengal Delta critiques development narratives of Bangladesh as a "climate change victim." It examines how development actors repackage colonial-era modernizing projects, which have caused severe environmental effects, as climate-adaptation solutions. Seawalls meant to mitigate against cyclones and rising sea levels instead silt up waterways and induce drainage-related flooding. Other adaptation projects, from saline aquaculture to high-yield agriculture, threaten soil fertility, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Bangladesh’s environmental crisis goes beyond climate change, extending to coastal vulnerabilities that are entwined with underemployment, debt, and the lack of universal healthcare. This timely book analyzes how development actors create flawed causal narratives linking their interventions in the environment and society of the Global South to climate change. Ultimately, such misreadings risk exacerbating climatic threats and structural inequalities. Misreading the Bengal Delta is available in an open access edition through the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749624

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Camelia Dewan is a postdoctoral fellow in the Dept. of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. She received her PhD in social anthropology and environment from the University of London in 2017. This is her first book.

Kalyanakrishnan "Shivi" Sivaramakrishnan is Dinakar Singh Professor of India and South Asia Studies, professor of anthropology, professor of forestry and environmental studies, and codirector of the Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Washington Press
• Date d'édition: 2022
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0295749601
• ISBN 13: 9780295749600
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 254
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible